Tropical Storm Fiona prompting watches for Puerto Rico, Leeward and other islands
MIAMI - Thursday night at 9 p.m., the National Hurricane Center issued advisories on Tropical Storm Fiona, located a few hundred miles east of the Leeward Islands.
The center of Fiona is expected to move across the Leeward Islands Friday night and early Saturday. Then the center is forecasted to move near the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico late Saturday into Sunday.
Maximum sustained winds remain near 60 mph (95 km/h) with higher gusts.
Little change in strength is forecast during the next few days.
Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles (220 km) from the center.
It is still too soon to say if the storm will pose a threat to Florida or the mainland U.S.," said CBS Miami chief meteorologist Ivan Cabrera.
"This is a five-day cone and the error of that is just huge," he said. "It's more than a week away."
Cabrera said if the storm turns northward it likely won't threaten the state of Florida.
Tropical Storm Fiona formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday evening and forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center issued tropical storm warnings for several islands.
At 11 a.m. on Thursday, Fiona was moving west at 14 mph with maximum sustained winds of about 50 mph. Little change in strength is forecast during the next few days. The center of the storm was located about 800 miles east of the Leeward Islands.
Fiona, the season's sixth named storm, is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 3 to 6 inches with isolated higher amounts across the northern Leeward Islands, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and eastern Hispaniola.
Swells generated by Fiona are expected to begin affecting the northern Leeward Islands by early Friday. These swells could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.